Bright

La Gardo Tackett

I am in love with these serving pieces by La Gardo Tackett from Hueneme Vintage and Fabulous Mess.

The Midas Touch

I think it would be great to have a bar full of vintage gold barware. Here are some items from Etsy that would look fantastic mixed together.

rhan

happy hearts vintage


van gough's closet


mod and pop


the smitten mitten


chase vintage


thirty third street flea


madonia botanicals


jen's closet



jen's closet


need or want

Bright

The lighting wasn't so great for this photo, so I am not sure if the flourescence of this paint job comes across... it was a pretty stunning example.

Weekend!

No travelling this weekend, but I had lots of fun- so much fun in fact, that I hardly took any photos. On Friday night, I met up with my friend Jessica at her workplace, where we talked about the tropical vacation we are planning for the winter. We walked from there to Electric Works to see the current show and eat grilled cheese sandwiches from the Toasty Melts cart. Afterwards we walked over to the Forage SF Underground Farmer's Market, but the line of hipsters waiting to get in was prohibitively long, so instead we went to Bloodhound for a drink. On our way back to our cars, we passed the Chez Spencer truck and had to stop for some potato gratin, escargot lollipops and warm chocolate pudding. French food out of a taco truck... yum! Then we went to see Date Night, which was hilarious! If you love screwball comedies, and adventure comedies (think The Out of Towners, or The Golden Child), then you should see Date Night. I haven't laughed that much at a movie in a long time.

On Saturday I spent the day catching up on some work and personal things, and in the afternoon, Erik made us a tasty snack of white beans and beet greens to eat while we watched Glee! (we are catching him up on the first season). In the evening, we met up with my friend Marina to check out the opening of the new Compound gallery in Oakland, where my friend Kelsey has a studio. After that, we had a quick dinner at Burma Superstar (I could live on their coconut rice) before heading over to Studio Quercus to see my friend Ajax's band, Thunderbleed AKA Blind Vengeance play an awesome show. It was fun to see lots of friends there and to have a proper Oakland night out.


Sunday Erik and I watched more Glee! and prepared for the Ayurvedic cleanse we are doing this week. Well, really Erik prepared- he is the dal-making expert in our household. Meanwhile, I made some sorbet (above) from the Logan and Olallieberries I picked last summer. Then I took a lovely walk at Point Isabel with Seymour and soaked up some sun, before going over to my parents' house to have dinner with my mom and pick artichokes from my dad's garden. Aren't they beautiful? The ones in my garden are going to be ready soon, too.

Weekend! (LA Edition)

Last weekend I was down in Los Angeles visiting my friends Myles and Laurel. My first night in town we had insanely good hamburgers at Father's Office. I wish I'd taken pictures but we were so hungry there wasn't time. I was excited to find that they served my favorite beer of all time, Hitachino Nest's White Ale, which I haven't seen on a menu in a long time. Afterwards we went to see The Ghost Writer at the lovely Crest Theater. It was a great thriller with a sense of humor- I definitely recommend it. The next day we got up early to visit the Rose Bowl antique market, and then went to one of my favorite places, Milk, for one of their killer banana-dulce de leche milkshakes (above).


After lunch we visited the Velaslavasay Panorama, which is pretty unique. If you've ever been to the Museum of Jurassic Techonology, this is along those lines. Then the weather got colder and we decided we could use a tropical cocktail, so we went to the new Trader Vic's downtown. It is nowhere near as cool as the old one in Beverly Hills, but the drinks are just as strong. We tried going to FIDM to look at the current exhibit, but they were closed. We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the house before meeting our friend Darren at Tavern in Brentwood for an outstanding dinner. It was so good that the next morning, Myles and I walked back over there to get lunch at the Larder, their takeout counter/bakery-cafe. It was a beautiful day and it was really fun to walk around a bit, since nobody walks in LA. We walked through the Veteran Center on the way home and I took some pictures.


And then we did something even more unheard of than walking: we took the bus! Yes, public transportation does exist in Los Angeles, and my friends make a point of taking it whenever possible. Myles had some errands to run in Santa Monica, so we walked around there a bit, making sure to stop and look at one of Los Angeles' oldest trees, the Moreton Bay fig at the Miramar Hotel. By the time we got home we were hungry again, so we headed off to Clementine to celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month in style. Clementine offers 5 different grilled cheese sandwiches each week for the month of April, and Myles and Laurel make an effort to try them all (that's Charo's Chicken Chipotle Cheese, below). Because we had a group of five, we were able to sample all of last week's offerings before I had to head to the airport to go home.

Looking Down

You might recall that I am obsessed with the stamps that cement contractors have left in our sidewalks over the last 100 years, which I catalog on my blog Sidewalk Secrets. Today while doing some research on a new stamp, I found some.access' amazing Flickr collection of fresh air vents, which are also marked by the contractors who installed them. Pretty cool! Makes me want to start photographing all the utility covers and manholes I see while looking down...

From Afield: Mission District

Marina and I spent another afternoon taking photos today, this time in the Mission District of San Francisco. She was specifically looking for lettering and typefaces, so both of us ended up photographing a lot of signs.

Notes from the Rose Bowl

I wasn't able to go to Alameda Point this month due to rain, but I had the chance to make up for my lack of antiquing when I visited Los Angeles this weekend. My friend Laurel and I took a trip up to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and here are some things that caught my eye. By comparison, the Rose Bowl contains more clothing and more mid-century furniture than Alameda Point, but it also had more "flea market junk" (ie, ethnic beads and cheap sunglasses, etc.)- perhaps they don't enforce an "everything must be 20 years or older" rule like Alameda Point does. That said, I kept wishing I could somehow fold up a couple of credenzas and floor lamps into my carry-on bag, and we barely even scratched the surface of the clothing section. I would definitely go back the next time I need either furniture or clothes, but for homewares and decorative objects (and knick-knacks), I still think Alameda Point is the best!